Ruth Harvey

2011-03-18T22:23:00.003+11:00

Haven't been painting a lot... got a block... artist's block makes it sound like a legitimate and passing thing. but i don't know if that's it. I had a dream of looking into a pool at something glinting on the bottom... but as you can see I'm interested but not throwing myself in.

Recent adventures

2009-06-27T21:39:00.026+10:00

I am just back from taking twelve days to step right back from my life on the coast. I flew to Alice Springs and joined a group of artists and writers on a retreat to the heart of the Australia. We camped for a week in the East Macdonnells, in a remote river valley, at Ruby Gap.

Each night I slept in a swag under a naked sky. Each morning we were woken with the birds, and verses from the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayam sung out from the camp kitchen by the camp host, under the fiery glow on the escarpment which features sheer walls and folded rocks. Each day I struggled with unfamiliar media, gouache, watercolour, oil crayons and pastels, so different from the rich vibrant versatile oils I'm used to. I fought with the paint and paper, took risks and scraped it off, tried and failed. Only towards the end of the camp did I feel my hand connecting with my eye, find enjoyment in the process, rediscover freedom in precise yet loose marks, touch the centre, begin to find the elusive something in painting that I love.

My beginnings

2009-03-25T12:25:00.005+11:00

I ran from home and school to art college in my mid-teens then escaped suburban life and the city but I have continued painting - it's in my blood. I had my first exhibition of paintings in Leichhardt, Sydney in 1989, when I was pregnant with my first child, and sold most of them. Painting took a back seat for a while, with occasional opportunities to work at it intensively and then to exhibit. Now my children are stretching their wings, and I am cleaning my brushes, wondering what direction my work will take next...

My interest in the natural world, capacity for physical work, and sense of design led me into garden design. My sense of community and care for the environment has led me to many causes and to teaching English to migrants, refugees and tertiary students.
My love runs to music too, to flute and piano in particular, which are also soul sustenance.

landscapes of the mind and heart

2009-01-23T01:12:00.008+11:00

I am interested in the landscape of the mind and the heart, as expressed both through the things we surround ourselves with, and in the subtle and dramatic moods of the natural environment.

In painting I am looking for metaphors in everyday life that allow me to contemplate the complexity of relationships and my own inner grapplings, while at the same time enjoying the luxury of being in my senses in the here and now. While it is an intensely focused experience it is also the time I feel most happy and at peace, because I am at the centre of myself, that is, off duty, unselfconscious and at "the still point of the turning world".

past work

2009-01-23T00:55:00.006+11:00

My paintings may be the children of my imagination, but I have to wonder where they are... sold and gone, including as far away as Paris.

Scroll down to view my past works.